Papers by Cristina M Dominguez
Qualitative Inquiry, 2024
In this relational ethnography, we write as two white afab genderqueer/trans parents who often fi... more In this relational ethnography, we write as two white afab genderqueer/trans parents who often find ourselves at best pulled between spaces and parts of ourselves, and at worst pressured to choose between the false dichotomy of our “illegible” place within transness/queerness and “aparent” place within motherhood. Weaving together autoethnographic vignettes of our lived experiences with the writings of QTBIPOC thinkers and pedagogues and their anti-racist white comrades, we reflect on themes of liminality, loneliness, hope, grieving, and love in mothering, kin, and community building and theorize, as queer trans (m)othering mother-ers, about the trans potentialities of being/becoming-with-longing queerly.
The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, Apr 23, 2019
Qualitative Inquiry, 2018
In this article, I share my journey toward haunting wholeness in the social justice work that I a... more In this article, I share my journey toward haunting wholeness in the social justice work that I am beginning to take up as a scholar, teacher, and community member. I evoke Avery Gordon’s notion of haunting, defining it as an experience in which “that which appears to be not there is often a seething presence, acting on and often meddling with taken-for-granted realities.” Investigating hauntings that take place in our lives can take us to a “dense site where history and subjectivity make social life.” Should we dwell and work in this site, should we take up hauntings and their “ghostly things,” I believe, as Gordon does, that we can conjure “a very particular way of knowing what has happened or is happening,” an affective and transformative way of knowing about our moving and relating in the world with others as social beings.
Journal of Autoethnography, 2022
According to Giroux (2011) we can, through critical pedagogy, engage the world as “an object of c... more According to Giroux (2011) we can, through critical pedagogy, engage the world as “an object of critical analysis” and as a place of “hopeful transformation” (p. 14). Giroux’s (2011) approach requires building and maintaining spaces where “the complexity of knowledge, culture, values and social issues can be explored in open and critical dialogue” (p. 124). Through these spaces, he argues, we are able to work to understand and disrupt oppressive power dynamics kept in place by systems of domination and control and move toward struggling for a more socially just world (Giroux, 2011, p. 7). bell hooks’ (2010) understanding that “love matters and that it brings strength and power (pp. 166-167) can contribute to our understanding of these spaces. hooks (2000) contends that “great social movements for freedom and justice” promote “a love ethic”, one in which we “utilize all the dimensions of love-care, commitment, trust, responsibility, respect, and knowledge-in our everyday lives” (p. 9...
The SAGE Handbook of Critical Pedagogies, 2020
In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire (2000: 169) writes that no one can ‘unveil the world for ano... more In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire (2000: 169) writes that no one can ‘unveil the world for another'. He asserts that while ‘one Subject may initiate the unveiling', all involved ‘must also become Subjects of this act’ (Freire, 2000: 169). Critical pedagogy is understood then as ‘co-intentional education', where teachers and learners are subjects ‘not only in the task of unveiling’ the social world and their place in it and ‘coming to know it critically', but also ‘in the task of re-creating that knowledge’ (Freire, 2000: 69), in efforts towards liberation for all. At the heart of the struggle for liberation through education for critical consciousness then is this dynamic where people come and become together as ‘co-subjects’ (Freire, 2000: 169). But what does this ‘authentic praxis’ (Freire, 2000: 169) in which people are ‘co-subjects’ (2000: 169) in and through critical consciousness raising and engagement and, more generally, critical pedagogy, look, feel, and move like? How do we create and sustain this with our students?
While we agree that critical pedagogy is not about ‘an a priori method that simply can be applied regardless of context’ (Giroux, 2011: 4), we believe that the individually focused philosophical orientations and practical approaches present in the existing literature severely limit us in pursuing its aim. Believing that ‘the struggle for liberation is a common task’ (Freire, 2000: 176), we are called to, as hooks (2010: 43) says, ‘break with the notion that our experience of gaining knowledge is private, individualistic and competitive’ and thus offer critical community building as a praxis orientation for critical pedagogy.
In the first half of the chapter we define critical pedagogy and critical consciousness. We then explore the exigent literature on critical pedagogy and the way in which the emphasis on students as individuals, and critical consciousness as an individual endeavor, unintentionally limits the efforts of critical educators to foster and sustain critically and collectively conscious liberatory educational spaces. We then briefly note the work of other scholars who have made similar critiques, adding to them our assertion that a critical community building praxis orientation to critical pedagogy is practicing a prefigurative politic1 as it not only provides the conditions for those involved to re-imagine and re-write the world but also, through the praxis orientation itself, allows those involved to begin to bring such a world to life.
In the second half of the chapter we discuss what a critical community building praxis orientation can offer critical pedagogy. In this section we define and discuss critical community building praxis and share the work by which it is informed. We also offer four critical community building practices: (a) configuring the space for maximum interaction among community members, (b) engaging in intentional welcoming/connecting/being present with each other's practices, (c) creating community commitments, and (d) promoting mind, body, spirit connection in relationships through collective arts-based activities and story sharing. Lastly, within the discussion of each practice, we share practical examples from our teaching experiences.
The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 2019
According to Giroux (2011) we can, through critical pedagogy, engage the world as “an object of c... more According to Giroux (2011) we can, through critical pedagogy, engage the world as “an object of critical analysis” and as a place of “hopeful transformation” (p. 14). Giroux’s (2011) approach requires building and maintaining spaces where “the complexity of knowledge, culture, values and social issues can be explored in open and critical dialogue” (p. 124). Through these spaces, he argues, we are able to work to understand and disrupt oppressive power dynamics kept in place by systems of domination and control and move toward struggling for a more socially just world (Giroux, 2011, p. 7). bell hooks’ (2010) understanding that “love matters and that it brings strength and power (pp. 166-167) can contribute to our understanding of these spaces. hooks (2000) contends that “great social movements for freedom and justice” promote “a love ethic”, one in which we “utilize all the dimensions of love-care, commitment, trust, responsibility, respect, and knowledge-in our everyday lives” (p. 94). Ascribing to the critical pedagogical view that education should be a “critical practice” (Freire, 2001, p. 30) in which those involved “make ourselves different tomorrow from what we are today” (Shapiro, 2012, p. 50), “transform the world we live in” (hooks, 2010, p. 188) and employ an understanding of the power and ethic of love as integral to “working for a collective good” (hooks, 2000, p. 214), I argue that we should engage critical pedagogy as living-loving praxis in all the places of lives, including the personal and romantic.
Journal of Loss and Trauma, 2010
Journal of Homosexuality, 2010
Book Review In the last few decades, the topic of legalizing same-sex marriage has captivated U.S... more Book Review In the last few decades, the topic of legalizing same-sex marriage has captivated U.S. audiences. Although this discussion is a relatively recent one (not really beginning until the 1990s), more than 60 books about same-sex marriage are now in print. Among the array of literature on same-sex marriage, Lee Badgett’s book, When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage, stands apart. Badgett, an economist and author of Money, Myths and Change (2001, University of Chicago Press) and Sexual Orientation Discrimination: An International Perspective (2007, Routledge), presents a unique perspective on the topic. Not only does Badgett’s inclusion of personal experience augment rather than bias her work by contextualizing her findings and the relationship between her work and the reader in a profound and powerful way, but her international approach takes her work far beyond most others.
Thesis Chapters by Cristina M Dominguez
This thesis is a historical and intersectional investigation of the contemporary use of queer poe... more This thesis is a historical and intersectional investigation of the contemporary use of queer poetry as a grassroots activist tool in South Africa. The research in this thesis includes an analysis of in-depth qualitative interviews and poems by ten young queer South African women poets. Relationships with all of the participants with the exception of one were established during a research trip in South Africa that took place in July and August of 2011. The interviews for this study were obtained through two different means: phone or e-mail communications. The women in this project were between the ages of 20-32 at the time of interview and thus had come of age after the beginning of the Gay and Lesbian movement in South Africa. Some of the participants used their real names while others self selected pseudonyms. All of the poets chose the poems they wanted to be used in the project. A focus on a younger and more racially and ethnically diverse group of lesbian, bisexual and otherwise identified young women will contribute new and largely unheard voices to LGBTQ scholarship. This study could potentially contribute to a greater understanding and acceptance of queer activism and community-building transnationally. Findings may also fill a representational gap in current literature on queer activists in South Africa with diverse backgrounds.
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Papers by Cristina M Dominguez
While we agree that critical pedagogy is not about ‘an a priori method that simply can be applied regardless of context’ (Giroux, 2011: 4), we believe that the individually focused philosophical orientations and practical approaches present in the existing literature severely limit us in pursuing its aim. Believing that ‘the struggle for liberation is a common task’ (Freire, 2000: 176), we are called to, as hooks (2010: 43) says, ‘break with the notion that our experience of gaining knowledge is private, individualistic and competitive’ and thus offer critical community building as a praxis orientation for critical pedagogy.
In the first half of the chapter we define critical pedagogy and critical consciousness. We then explore the exigent literature on critical pedagogy and the way in which the emphasis on students as individuals, and critical consciousness as an individual endeavor, unintentionally limits the efforts of critical educators to foster and sustain critically and collectively conscious liberatory educational spaces. We then briefly note the work of other scholars who have made similar critiques, adding to them our assertion that a critical community building praxis orientation to critical pedagogy is practicing a prefigurative politic1 as it not only provides the conditions for those involved to re-imagine and re-write the world but also, through the praxis orientation itself, allows those involved to begin to bring such a world to life.
In the second half of the chapter we discuss what a critical community building praxis orientation can offer critical pedagogy. In this section we define and discuss critical community building praxis and share the work by which it is informed. We also offer four critical community building practices: (a) configuring the space for maximum interaction among community members, (b) engaging in intentional welcoming/connecting/being present with each other's practices, (c) creating community commitments, and (d) promoting mind, body, spirit connection in relationships through collective arts-based activities and story sharing. Lastly, within the discussion of each practice, we share practical examples from our teaching experiences.
Thesis Chapters by Cristina M Dominguez
While we agree that critical pedagogy is not about ‘an a priori method that simply can be applied regardless of context’ (Giroux, 2011: 4), we believe that the individually focused philosophical orientations and practical approaches present in the existing literature severely limit us in pursuing its aim. Believing that ‘the struggle for liberation is a common task’ (Freire, 2000: 176), we are called to, as hooks (2010: 43) says, ‘break with the notion that our experience of gaining knowledge is private, individualistic and competitive’ and thus offer critical community building as a praxis orientation for critical pedagogy.
In the first half of the chapter we define critical pedagogy and critical consciousness. We then explore the exigent literature on critical pedagogy and the way in which the emphasis on students as individuals, and critical consciousness as an individual endeavor, unintentionally limits the efforts of critical educators to foster and sustain critically and collectively conscious liberatory educational spaces. We then briefly note the work of other scholars who have made similar critiques, adding to them our assertion that a critical community building praxis orientation to critical pedagogy is practicing a prefigurative politic1 as it not only provides the conditions for those involved to re-imagine and re-write the world but also, through the praxis orientation itself, allows those involved to begin to bring such a world to life.
In the second half of the chapter we discuss what a critical community building praxis orientation can offer critical pedagogy. In this section we define and discuss critical community building praxis and share the work by which it is informed. We also offer four critical community building practices: (a) configuring the space for maximum interaction among community members, (b) engaging in intentional welcoming/connecting/being present with each other's practices, (c) creating community commitments, and (d) promoting mind, body, spirit connection in relationships through collective arts-based activities and story sharing. Lastly, within the discussion of each practice, we share practical examples from our teaching experiences.